Blood Ties

3. Questions

If it had been a weekday, the streets near Quinn’s home would have started to come alive with people who were on their way to work. New York City might have been particularly active, but here on the upper east side where most people had a Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 work week, people took their mornings off to sleep in.

It was the perfect time for a kidnapper to make his getaway.

With her hands tied behind her back under the thick winter coat and her face obscured by the hood, no one could see Quinn’s distressed eyes, and she couldn’t cry out for help with her mouth still gagged. Plus, no one was around even if she’d been able to make a sound.

Adam hustled her into the car and moved around to the driver’s side quickly, his face looking around to see if anyone was seeing what was happening. When he closed and locked all the doors, he immediately turned on the vehicle.

Quinn thought it was odd. She was freezing, even with all her winter clothing. Her captor seemed unaffected by the bitter cold, but after he turned on the car, he put the heat on low and spoke gently to her.

“I know you’re cold, and you can’t be very comfortable with your hands tied behind your back. I have the child safety locks engaged, which means you wouldn’t be able to open your door even if you tried, but I will untie you and retie your hands in front of you instead. That way you won’t be forced to sit so awkwardly.”

She blinked at him, shaking her head until he frowned back at her. He c****d his head.

“Do you want to sit with your hands behind your back? That’s certainly going to hurt after a while.”

Then Quinn shook her head even harder, more vehemently. Adam sighed and pushed her hood a little further back before dragging her gag down a bit. It gave her enough space to breathe better and speak, but he warned her first.

“You scream or alert anyone to our presence, and I may have to do something rash. I don’t think you’d be very comfortable in the trunk of the car, and the heat doesn’t reach back there very well, I would assume.”

“Can’t…breathe well,” she gasped once he’d stopped talking. “Nose…stuffed.” She sniffled.

Suspicious, Adam pushed her hood back and stared at her tear-stained face. It made him a little angry, seeing her crying. It wasn’t meant to be like this, but he couldn’t exactly help it now. “You’d be able to breathe better if you stopped crying. I promise you on my very life I would do nothing to harm you—not ever. I would rather hurt myself than you.” He took a deep breath, like it had winded him or he was moved somehow to say that. “Now, sit back. I’m going to unzip your coat. After I do, I need you to lean forward so I can undo the ties from around your wrists. I’ll retie them in front of you, because we’re getting on the highway sometime soon, and I can’t have you trying to sabotage me or make a move to try and get help on the way to where we’re going. You could even try to pull at the wheel and then you’d be in real deep s**t. You could get hurt, and I won’t have that.”

“I wouldn’t do that.” Her eyes narrowed on him. “We could get into an accident, though I wouldn’t make any promises about trying to get the attention of a passing cop.”

Adam sighed, but didn’t seem all that surprised. After he’d unzipped her coat, she leaned forward, and he pulled the jacket it off her. The heater was starting to work, so she wasn’t too cold anymore. Quinn felt him loosen the ties, flexing her fingers after they fell away and pulling them to the front to rub at her wrists. Her fingers felt a little stiff, but she was certain that that was because of the awkward position and not the tightness of the bonds.

When Adam went to retie her restraints, she looked at him, her hands pulling slightly away. “Can’t I keep them untied for now? Just for a little bit?”

He shook his head, his lips flattening into a line. “I don’t really want to keep you tied up, but I also don’t trust you yet. You don’t—” He took another long, lingering inhale. “If you knew the extent of what was going on, you might understand a little better, but it’s not something I can get into right now. You probably wouldn’t believe me at this point. All you see is me kidnapping you, but I promise it’s more than that—much, much more. You’ll comprehend when everything is out in the open, but I can’t explain it right now. It’s getting late and we have to get going.”

He tied her wrists back up, but took the gag out of her mouth so she could speak. With an extra bandana he had, he covered her eyes so she couldn’t see where they were going and couldn’t make eye contact with anyone. After that, he pulled her coat back on her, dropping her hood low so her face was hidden in shadow again.

“If you get too warm, let me know and I’ll lower the heat.”

Again, he was kidnapping her yet still seemed concerned about her comfort. She blurted out a question, positively unable to help herself.

“Are all kidnappers so caring? You tie me up and take me away and yet you’re worried I might sweat? I don’t understand any of this.”

She heard him sigh, and the car lurched slowly forward and was moving down the road before he spoke again. “I told you, I don’t want you uncomfortable in any way. I won’t hurt you, and I won’t allow you to harm yourself. All will be revealed in time, I assure you.”

Quinn scoffed. “All will be revealed in time? Are you f*****g kidding me? Are you a mystic—some f*****g clairvoyant? You gotta be nuts to think I’ll believe anything you say. You’re probably keeping me only to sell me into human trafficking or something. Can’t damage the goods because I won’t fetch the price you want, is that it? Don’t make it seem like you care when you obviously don’t. I won’t buy that line. I’ve been kidnapped from my own home and am being taken to an undisclosed location. If that doesn’t make my hair want to go prematurely grey, I don’t know what will.”

“I told you. You won’t understand until you know more. I’m not selling you into trafficking. I’m not keeping you safe because you have monetary worth. You’re going to be mine, be with me.” He paused, almost whispering the next word. “Forever.”

***

Quinn refused to shut up for the first half of the ride to wherever they were going in Upstate New York. She quizzed the man who was driving, trying to gain insight on why he would have been keen on taking her and not someone else. There had to be prettier, more financially beneficial women he could use for ransom. He wouldn’t speak except to answer a few of her questions about how he’d gotten into her apartment.

“You should probably lock your windows,” he informed her. “Even though you’re on the second floor and have no easy way of climbing up to your place, there are ways, and I was able to slip in through your bathroom window and hide in the dark recesses of your closet when you came home.”

“How long were you in my apartment? Why were you in my bed when I woke up? How come I didn’t wake up when you climbed in? Are you part ninja?”

“I admit, I thought I’d have to hide for a lot longer. I didn’t realize you would be home so late. College students sometimes go out to bars on the weekends, so I figured that’s what you did instead of coming home earlier. Where were you anyway?”

“I had a late-night rehearsal for the Spring Festival. Every year the different classes are tasked with directing and producing their own play or musical. Ours is Into The Woods.”

“Stephen Sondheim?” he questioned.

“Yes. The seniors are doing Sondheim, the juniors are going with an old Rogers and Hammerstein musical, and I—” She stopped herself before going further. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. You couldn’t give a s**t about my interests, I’m sure.”

“Not true,” he argued. “I want to hear about your life—everything. I know very little except that your parents are in Virginia and live on a farm.”

“How do you know that?” She was immediately suspicious.

“Because I have my ways, and the money to back up any plan I need to get done. I only did a marginal research on you, though. I’d prefer to hear about you from yourself—in your own words, if you will.”

“Why?” she asked. “Why would I tell you something when I know you can turn it around on me? What if I told you something and you used it, threatening to harm my family or use the information to get me to do as you wish. If I didn’t think that, I’d be the stupidest person on the planet.”

There was silence as Adam seemed to think over what she said, and he cleared his throat before responding. “I guess that’s fair. And you won’t trust me until you have all the information you need to make a solid decision. There is always a choice, you know. I would never force anything on you or…or one of ours.”

He was speaking in riddles, and Quinn had no idea what to think. She couldn’t see any reason to change her mind about a kidnapper, unless she started to suffer from Stockholm Syndrome. She’d seen quite a few crime shows in her spare time, and it had been touched on in a few instances. She wasn’t a crime afficionado in any way, but she’d read teh autobiography of some kidnapping victim once, and it had hit home how easily a young person could be influenced and manipulated.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she muttered, almost to herself. “You’re talking like some f*****g mystery novel. I have no idea what you’re saying, and I could care less about getting to know you.”

What she didn’t say but wanted to express, was one single question. Why did she dream about him before she’d ever seen his face? What was the significance? It was like those old YA books about werewolves and vampires and destiny. Utterly tiring, but they soothed some inner need for the fantastical to exist, for something exotic and interesting and more. Quinn had been guilty as most girls her age when she was younger. She’d grown up with an interest in intrigue and mystique. Now she couldn’t have cared less what this man was getting at, because she wanted answers, and wanted them now.

“I’d be clearer if I could be.” He spoke the words solemnly, as one would an oath. “It’s hard to describe in the best of situations, and I’m trying to drive safely here.”

She was quiet for a moment, mulling that over. “Where are we going, anyway?” she mumbled irritably.

“I have a house upstate. We’re going there. Can’t be more specific than that—at least, not right away.”

As always, he told her just enough to quell some of her curiosity, but never enough to entirely satisfy her. It was like being thirst but only being offered a shot glass full of water at a time. You were still dying for more.

“Is this where you live?”

“No, but it’s a vacation home. I live far away. You will see soon, but that’s for another time. I…I don’t want to push you, and there is so much I can’t say yet, even if I wanted to. You wouldn’t believe it. You will one day, and one day soon. This I promise you.”

They were quiet for a while after that, because Quinn was trying to think of everything he’d said and the intrigue behind this odd kidnapping. Adam turned the music up, and Quinn could only be thankful it was after Christmas. Listening to “Here Comes Santa Claus” or “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree” for over a month had been tiring. She loved the holidays, but 8 different versions of “Oh, Come All Ye Faithful” just wasn’t her bag.

She’d almost dozed off by the time they turned off the highway, and a few minutes passed when she wondered how close they were to their destination.

“We there yet?” She attempted to stifle a yawn, but her hands were still bound at the wrists. Instead, she muffled the majority of it in the side of her hood.

“A couple of minutes away.” He sounded distracted, so Quinn went quiet for a while until the car stopped and they were parked in place.  

Adam hadn’t thought to pack any clothing for her, telling her she wouldn’t need anything where they were going. It had been almost ominous, so she’d figured that wherever they were going was just a stop along the way until she was ferried out of the country to another where they ignored trafficking laws and such.

He got out of the car and made his way to the other side, his shoes crunching in the snow. Quinn’s door was opened, and she was hauled to standing before the bandana over her eyes was removed.

“Here we are.”

She was stunned at the sight. No matter how long she’d been in the car for, she hadn’t expected this, and she didn’t know how to respond to it either.